Boston, MA | May 21-23, 2012

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To bring some local flavor to The Cable Show, Imagine Park is featuring Boston-area startups. Boston is known worldwide as a hub for innovative ideas and these companies bring new ideas and fresh thinking, all powered by broadband.

The companies presented their ideas live on the Imagine Park’s stage today. If you missed it, the video will soon be available here.

Catch Media pioneered putting entertainment in the cloud via their infrastructure called Play Anywhere. The company enables MVPDs/carriers, content companies, retailers and device manufacturers to deliver their customers convenient access to content anytime, anywhere on any device. Play Anywhere also provides insight into customer behavior leading to the development of a one-to-one marketing channel to the customer.

Thumbs Up is a mobile app that lets viewers rate TV in real time and instantly share their favorite moments of TV with ease. Through a plug-and-play API, TV producers integrate Thumbs Up into any second-screen app to establish a real-time connection with their audience that is faster and more immediate than Twitter.

UberSense is creating a personal sports coach in the palm of your hands. Olympic teams, MLB teams, and 600,000 amateurs and coaches around the world are using UberSense’s mobile apps and cloud platform to help video-analyze sports technique, compare with professionals, and collaborate with peers and coaches anywhere around the world.

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One of the great benefits of holding The Cable Show in Boston is tapping into the greatest tech and thought universities in the world. Cable is a rapidly innovating industry that is a great testing ground for young technologists to experiment with new ways to expand the overall cable experience.

Which is why we are hosting a live 48-hour hackathon, called the Imagine App Challenge, during the Cable Show on Monday through Wednesday. In partnership with the Application Developers Alliance, this student developer competition will be held in Imagine Park, the live events stage and innovation destination on The Cable Show exhibit floor.

Student teams from MIT, Stanford, Rutgers, Wellesley and Pace have been selected to develop innovative new tablet and/or smartphone applications that leverage the power of broadband. The teams will have 48-hours to move from idea to a functioning application. Each team will then demonstrate their applications to a panel of judges comprised of cable operators, programmers and established software companies in a special Imagine Park segment held on Wednesday, May 23.

All events from Imagine Park will be streamed live, so you’ll get a chance to peek in on the action. You can also follow the #imagineapp hashtag and @CableShowParkon Twitter.

On Monday at 10:00 a.m. (ET), the opening General Sessionwill include a look at how innovative companies are positioning themselves to take advantage of an anytime, anywhere, anything-goes media environment. CNN’s Erin Burnett will speak with Tim Armstrong, Chairman & CEO, AOL; Glenn Britt, Chairman & CEO, Time Warner Cable; and David Zaslav, President & CEO, Discovery Communications. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will also make remarks, as will NCTA’s Michael Powell.

Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. (ET), CNBC’s Julia Boorstin will talk with filmmaker Edward Burns, Reo Caraeff, President & CEO, VEVO; Dan Mead, President & CEO, Verizon Wireless; and Neil Smit, President & CEO, Comcast Cable, and Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation. That same session will include a one-on-one conversation between Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the FCC, and our own Michael Powell. Then, C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, will take a look at the world of politics with CNN’s John King, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, and Univision’s Maria Elena Salinas.

Imagine Park’s busy schedule over the three days will be streamed as well. Events there include the App Challenge, a 48 hour live “hackathon” style with five teams of university students competing for prize money, and a debate between the Harvard and Columbiadebate teams on “Is Cable Doing Enough to Keep Millennials.” Also on the schedule are numerous conversations and demonstrations of everything from smart energy to second screen apps.

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Heard about something called IPv6 (or Internet Protocol version 6) transition? When the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) – the coordinating body that manages the world-wide distribution of IP addresses – announced earlier this year that it had run out of IPv4 addresses under the current system, consumers wondered whether their treasured Internet communications might be hindered. The Internet will transition to a new set of IP addresses – essentially numerical labels directing online traffic to the right place on the web – which will continue to connect the massive number of new computers, mobile phones and countless other gadgets.

Since this is such a big issue, The Cable Show will host a summit on this global transition to IPv6. TheIPv6 Summit provides an opportunity for cable operator and programmer executives, senior managers, technologists and other experts to learn more about the transition and collaborate on solutions and strategies.

Achieving a smooth transition, however, to a new platform for Internet addresses – possibly as soon as late 2011 – poses immense challenges for network, infrastructure, and Internet “edge” providers. Success depends on collaboration among a wide variety of participants, including cable system operators, cable programmers, other ISPs, content and web providers, consumer equipment manufacturers, consumer retailers, and Internet users. The IPv6 Summit will look into these issues, and create a dialogue among these groups.

The IPv6 Summit will feature several panels concentrating on various elements of the transition as well as opportunities to compare notes, both formally and informally, on transition challenges and solutions. Show organizers also expect that other interested parties from beyond the cable industry will attend and participate, giving way to inter-industry consultation on the transition.

Have a role in the Internet ecosystem, be it in cable, consumer electronics, or content? If so, the IPv6 Summit is a nice opportunity to learn alongside colleagues for successful completion of this critical transition. The IPv6 Summit is included with a full conference registration to The Cable Show 2011 (summit sign-up is required). Specially discounted summit-only passes are also available and include the summit, the Tuesday General Session and a Tuesday-only exhibit floor pass. Information about registration for The Cable Show 2011 can be found at http://2011.thecableshow.com/Attending/Registration.